Sunday, 29 August 2010

Harvest Number One

Well, this time, to explain my further absence, I have been on holiday in the South of France with my sister and her family. Cannes, to be exact, and I got tan (for the first time in perhaps 4 years?).




It was beautiful, it was hot (I love the heat), it was bliss. Six days on a beach.



This beach, to be exact, the "Bijou Plage" directly across the street from the apartment. Huh. Was that only five days ago?



But to return to the subject at hand, I will start with the vegetable garden.





This year I am attempting courgette (zuchini for those Stateside), cucumber, tomatoes (of course!), beans, peas, and the usual lettuce, spinach, rocket. Potatoes in a bag (more on that later), beetroot, and radishes.





Nice buch of radishes, expecting to harvest another lot tomorrow (you can sow seeds every three weeks to get a succession of crops). Two lovely cucumber on the right, one nice and rather large courgette on the left. All well and good.


Ah, those courgettes. First of all, lesson one, the plant gets rather huge.






Secondly, you really have to look out for the vegetable appearing. I caught two in time. Next time, I was taken by surprise





Jamie Oliver says that when they get too big, they are rather wooly inside and not very edible. At this point, after I had put this on Facebook, an American friend kindly gave me a recipe for Zuchini Bread, which is just about all I could do with it. Which I intend to try.



And then today? Well, I thought I had checked before I left on the 18th August - but today ...






Oh Mama. How much Zuchini Bread am I going to end up with?

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

What's a girl to do?

When you have film premieres, theatre visits, after theatre drinks, red carpet events ...

Nah, there was just the one film premiere last night. A surreal experience. Thanks to the job that my lovely husband does, I went to a red carpet event. And managed not to trip up the carpet, or make a fool of myself - as they say here, I "scrub up" pretty well (that means, I can dress up without my wellies and jeans, my normal gardening attire).




I aqpologise for being absent, but believe me, I have been gardening. And I have lots to show you! Left border, vegetables, cleaning and clearing projects, all sorts. And I will be sharing with you soon! Not to mention the cats - oh the cats ...



Summer kitty. He loves the outdoors. Cats are wild.